Fome Zero

Fome Zero (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈfomi ˈzɛɾu], Zero Hunger) is a Brazilian government program introduced by the then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003, with the goal to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty in Brazil.

The program is co-ordinated by the Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Combat (Ministério do Desenvolvimento Social e Combate à Fome) and was intended to put into action the government's strategy to guarantee the right of access to basic food. The program takes a number of forms, ranging from direct financial aid to the poorest families (with the Bolsa Família card) to diverse strategies such as creating water cisterns in Brazil's semi-arid areas, creating low-cost restaurants, educating people about healthy eating habits, distributing vitamins and iron supplements, supporting subsistence family farming and giving access to microcredit.

Fome Zero is thought to be the biggest initiative to date by a Brazilian government to combat hunger in the history of the country, and builds on similar assistance programs implemented by previous governments.

The program is believed to have contributed to Brazil's recent reported improvements in its fight against poverty, according to research promoted by some universities and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). An ex ante econometric evaluation of Bolsa Escola did find significant effects on both school attendance rates and the number of children involved in child labor.

The World Bank, which created on June 2005 a Bolsa Família Project to assist the Brazilian government in managing the Bolsa Família Program, declared that "Although the program is relatively young, some results are already apparent, including: (...) contributions to improved education outcomes, and impacts on children’s growth, food consumption, and diet quality".

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